15 March 2008

I Am Smart!

I like to be self sufficient. Still -- having Jesse around has allowed me to be lazy in the computer department. He knows a lot more about computers than I do. And as things have needed to be fixed or upgraded it's become easier to ask him to do it, rather than to ask him to explain. Me having Jesse (and Jesse having Ryan as a reference) has served me well over the years. However, sometime during Jesse's I-have-to-go-to-Thailand crisis, he started slacking. Which may have been the best thing, as it has now led me to nearly complete self sufficiency.

My computer died in December. Dell decided to give me a new hard drive, but warned that I had to save all of my pictures somewhere else. I bought a storage unit and things got really technical.

I pulled out my hard drive (after Joel told me where it was), put it in a cozy carrying case (after Ryan told me what type to get), then Ubuntu (an operating system that runs off a single disc) to transfer the pictures & other stuff from the hard drive to the storage unit. That took two days. Then Dell gave me a new hard drive and a bunch of discs to start from scratch. I love it DIY projects.

It should be noted the entire idea to do what I did came from Jesse. He was the one who originally found Ubuntu and used it to build a computer for Lucy. So even though he did not help with the actual doing, he should be credited as the creative force/

I reinstalled programs. I put all the pictures, music, and documents back where they where. Lucy & I reconfigured the Internet encryption. We were back in business. That got us here, but there were still some problems.

I couldn't scroll, the page would jump. I couldn't play DVDs, there was some sort of copyright protection issue. I was still missing drivers. My computer was waking itself up at night. Jesse promised to take care of these things, but never got around to it. He went to Thailand and I went to work.

I called Dell about the DVD issue. Ninety minutes later, Dell promised to call back with a solution. Dell lied. Today I fixed everything, all by myself. I installed the missing drivers, which got the video working properly. I ordered my computer to hibernate every night. I also updated my screen saver and changed my color scheme. I knew how to do that before but still, it counts today. I feel so smart. Jesse is out of his I.T. job.